Another foreign drug company has made a hostile bid for a smaller U.S. rival. Tokyo's Astellas Pharma Inc. offered $1 billion in January for CV Therapeutics Inc.,
which has thus far stood firm against the approach. Astellas' bid
follows a familiar pattern in the drug world: Licensing partners turn
into acquisition targets. Astellas is CVT's marketing partner for
Lexiscan, a drug that helps doctors identify heart disease.
The Palo Alto, Calif., target is using Alan Mendelson for legal advice. The Latham & Watkins LLP partner has counseled CVT since its founding in 1990 and handled the company's 1996 IPO when he was at Cooley Godward Kronish LLP. Mendelson brought the client with him to Latham's Silicon Valley office in 2000. CVT tapped longtime adviser Fred Frank of Barclays Capital and Jim Katzman, Marshall Smith, Tosa Ogbomo and Amit Sinha at Goldman, Sachs & Co., which had not previously worked for CVT.
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Astellas turned to
Michael Braun and
Mike O'Bryan of
Morrison & Foerster LLP.
MoFo began representing Fujisawa Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. in 1978; that
company merged with Yamanouchi Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. to form
Astellas. Braun represented both sides in the deal. MoFo also advised
Astellas when it bought Agensys Inc. of Santa Monica, Calif., in 2007.
David Low Jr. of
Lazard is also advising the bidder. He and MoFo's
Jonathan Dickstein represented Astellas in a 2006 licensing deal with
FibroGen Inc.
